Surely people are aware you can mark your workouts private if you don't like the 'KOM' and social aspect of Strava.

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With genetics as crappy as mine for endurance sport it is rare for me to get into a Strava boast, but there was one time I felt good. When I got a note of my placing on a well-used loop I noticed I finished a couple minutes faster than my former boss, who seemed a bit smug at times since he used to race for Clemson University and thought I was nothing more than a fat slob roadie. Like someone else said I am generally humbled by my rides. At other times I am humored by a segment called out as a Cat "x" climb by someone and by the application and I think, "There was a hill there? I don't remember going up a hill."

However, just like the unknowns of Strava it could have been that I had a really good tailwind that day so in truth I guess I still can't boast much. Strava is interesting because you can't always tell if the person that got a good finishing time was sucking someone's wheel the whole ride, had a good tailwind or other things. Most in my group (when I ride with them) are not Strava members so it would appear that I did the ride solo unless I state that in the ride title.

I used Garmin Connect since about the time it started on the web, but the last couple years it has dropped from my favorite so now Strava is my social avenue. WKO and Golden Cheetah are what I use for training.

You don't HAVE to share your rides, runs, swims or have friends on Strava. It can be your own private little world if you like.

I like Strava and I find segments to be a little bit of fun motivation here are there in addition to it logging my workouts with some interesting data.

That's a fair point.

My understanding of the OP's post was that they were discussing the public/social aspect of Strava (otherwise we may as well discuss Training Peaks etc in the same way), and so I kept my response to just this aspect.

Then, what would be the advantage of Strava versus any other data analysis tool (Garmin, Golden Cheetah, Training Peaks, etc)?

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

The route builder has been useful to me...if I'm in an unfamiliar area I can quickly set up a loop on the most popular riding roads in the area.

I use my iPhone and the app is free. :)

Another useful feature that they charge for is the live tracking... currently I used the Road ID app for that.

I just use it to log workouts. Period.

I have never once paid any attention to the KOM stuff or the social media aspects.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

I think Strava can be fun, but has it's place. If I ride/run with a group I'll upload my file but if I'm solo I skip it. Unless I drew a cool picture with my route, of course.

For reasons that have been discussed here already, though, I keep the security pretty locked down.

1. I don't want to many people finding the trails I ride on! This always seems to lead to trail closures because of the increased impact.

2. My bragging is at a much higher level than what my GPS stats show!

3. My wife will find out I play way to much, when I say I am working!

No, I get it. I really enjoy riding outside but it's just not practical/safe where I live. The drivers around here are bad enough when they're not distracted but I see WAY too many people texting or something while they drive. It's a miracle that there aren't more accidents. Plus there's a lot of old people who probably shouldn't be driving and a lot of tourists who have no idea where they're going.

There's a really nice trail about a 20 minute drive from me but it's just not practical for me to drive there, ride, and drive back the five days a week I train on my bike.

I do not want to give my personal info and e-mail address to yet another web service, and create and account that will get hacked no matter how much effort they put into protecting it. I don't put anything of mine on the Internet. Plus I don't want to have to remember another user name and password. I don't do that unless I have no choice. Strava is clearly just a neat thing to have, not a necessity. So, no.

I find Strava to be an easy way to log my rides. I also follow a smallish number of friends who I ride with and I think we all find it a great way to keep up with what we all are doing on days we do not ride together. Inevitably, we only ride together about 10% of the time so Strava is just a nice way to touch base. IMHO, Strava doesn't really "work" unless you have a close enough group of folks in your circle and you are all comfortable giving each other shit in the comments from time to time, and you actually are interested (even if just slightly . . .) in what so and so did today. If you are just looking to see which random unknown guy with a nick name is the fastest on a particular segment, or how you stack up against unknown people, Strava is admittedly kind of stupid.

You can't really get Strava until someone on your group does a penis ride and gives it a clever name.

1. I'm too fat
2. I'm too slow
3. You don't want to know me, I sweat / stink pretty bad when I ride

-- Challenges are cool but some are a serious time suck. Take the Rapha Festive 500 for example. 500 clicks between Christmas and New years... that works to about 70 km's a day... thats big time commitment between the holidays! I got Sh_t to do like insulate the attic & paint the bathroom!! What about visiting friends & family...How the heck am I going to explain / defend riding my bike (...on the trainer, in the basement -- I live in Toronto...) for 3 hours a day???

They should have the Rafa Festive 100...one 100KM ride between Christmas and New years waring a big bulky christmassy sweater and then with 2 pictures of you 1) guzzling a big rum & eggnog right after the ride and 2) about 40 seconds afterwards...

1. What's Strava?

I like it.

You don't have to brag or feel shame.

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My Blog

1. It has created a culture of "look at me!" even worse than we've already had, and it was already pretty bad.
2. It's dangerous. People do stupid shit to get to the top of a leader board on a segment.
3. I really don't want people to know how much I suck. If they want to know that, they can ride with me in the real world.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

^^^ This. Strava actually has the reverse effect on me, it keeps my ego in check. When I think I had a fast run, I go look and see a friend who just ran twice as far and 1min/mi faster. I follow Dave Roche because the dude does sick workouts and it's impressive and inspiring...plus sometimes he posts pictures of his dog!

Really though, what I like most about Strava is that it makes it easier to find the best/hardest/steepest/fastest roads in the area and then some friends and I go out and hammer these segments because it's fun to go fast. Sometimes I'm first, sometimes I'm last...doesn't matter because we'll try again next month.

Like someone else said, if you can't abstain from the gong show of Strava when you're training easy, then you have bigger problems.

I find that it is useful for a reason that no one has mentioned. I have been riding with a few people for years, and have become good friends with a couple of them. Since any outdoor workout I do ends of up Strava, they can see them, and they will comment about them. As much as I like to pretend that I don't care about what people think, it makes me feel good when they compliment a run or OWS. It also keeps me honest. I know that if I round up my 22 mile week of running to 30 (which is sometimes tempting to do in my head when I don't feel like running), the guys will call me on it.

I find it also keeps me honest during my hard interval days.
My best 5 minute power of the year was not at a race, it was during a strava section that I decided I wanted to attack.

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My Blog

I'm a fan. The interface is much better than Garmin Connect, and I haven't used Trainingpeaks for years.

For me there's quite a motivational aspect to seeing the diverse and interesting rides, runs, etc... that my friends are doing across the country/globe every day. Also, the simplicity of seeing all of my workouts, volume, and improvement (granted, via data ported over from G.C) is very nice.

I used to care about segments 18 months ago, like it was fun competition. However, after flagging hundreds of rides marked as runs, I got fed up (I'm also wondering why there isn't a built-in bike/run check in Strava... I mean, a 21.1km run at a 2:00min/km average should not even be permitted to be submitted as a run...).

I still use it, for the same reason I still use Facebook... to stay in contact, because everyone else is using it.

I created an account intending to try it and couldnt get past the Strava system blatant ego pandering auto-generated reply of "hey, you're kind of a big deal..so and so is following you"
i really didn't care in the first place, but that was pretty much it for me.

maybe im being shortsighted, but it all just seemed so 'weeee, look at meee'

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http://www.PatGriskusTri.com USAT Certified Race Director
2024 Races: USAT State of CT Age Group Championship/State of CT HS Champs/ CT Club Championship - Sat June 15th (Oly/Du/Sprint) Hopkins Vineyard Tri at Lake Waramaug Saturday July 13th http://www.HopkinsVineyardTri.com

x2. Strava is awesome. I love it. Helps me keep track of all my teammates. It's definitely motivating. And I have met some cool people via Strava.